Review of Licence to Kill (1989) by Vidyabum — 22 Oct 2021
Having watched 25 Bonds from Dr.No to Skyfall, I place this one at 11/25.
I might even have placed it much higher, if it weren't for one detail that bothered me, which is the main villain's actor.
Licence to Kill is an all-around excellentHaving watched 25 Bonds from Dr.No to Skyfall, I place this one at 11/25.
I might even have placed it much higher, if it weren't for one detail that bothered me, which is the main villain's actor.
Licence to Kill is an all-around excellent Bond/Dalton movie. It's got some comedy but it's peppered rather than crammed, it has good action, but relies mostly on its lines, wit, and its characters' intelligent decisions and tactics.
Yes, I am saying that a Bond movie is good because Bond is a clever man that wins through wit and not the magic thing in his pants that always wins him his fights.
His actions, his relationships, his manipulations, he's just smart. There's a lot of action with words and manipulations, and a lot of action with guns and fists only when necessary.
It's a movie blessed with great action, great characters, great lines, great pretty much everything. Ok, it does sin a bit with some of the more ridiculous bits, but it's a Bond movie, it's forgiven. Killing a CIA head and his wife and not having the CIA do a single thing about it so Bond has to go do the job himself alone MIGHT be just stretching it too far though. I would place it in the top 5, but as I said, I really couldn't deal with the main villain's actor. Well written and not necessarily poorly acted, I just couldn't deal with his face. I know it's a petty reason, which is why I'm giving it a pretty good grade, because I did like a lot of the movie, but every time I saw the villain's face, all I could tell myself is "how can I take this guy seriously? He looks like he works in a kitchen with oil all day." I just couldn't buy his face as some criminal mastermind, he looked like a henchman at best. Again the actor isn't bad, it's really just his face.
Except that, everything in this movie was excellent.
This review of Licence to Kill (1989) was written by Vidyabum on 22 Oct 2021.
Licence to Kill has generally received positive reviews.
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